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1/03/2015

Armed smash and grab cell phone thieves stopped by armed employee

St. Louis has been plagued for years by armed robbers who break into cell phone stores and steal all the cell phones that they can grab. An example from June 2013 is available here. Here is the police account from a robbery today:

1/02/2015

Democrat Gubernatorial Candidate in Texas, Wendy Davis, just said that she supported open carry as a way to win political support, she didn't really believe it

This past June, Wendy Davis painted herself as being pro-gun on many issues (from open carry to allowing permitted concealed handguns to be stored in people's cars on college campuses to reducing training for permits). Democrats, of course, denied the claim that Davis was really anti-gun and just pretending to be pro-self defense. As the argument went this past summer, from Politico:

Davis has said she supports expanding gun rights in Texas. In a statement to the Associated Press, she said that includes open-carry — a position that puts her at odds with her own party but could keep her from alienating gun rights advocates in a deeply conservative state where the Second Amendment is sacrosanct. . . .

Davis, who said she keeps a gun at her home for protection, supported legislation last year to allow college students with concealed handgun licenses to keep their weapons in their cars. She also voted for reduced training requirements to get such a license.

Still, gun rights advocates were skeptical. Texas State Rifle Association spokeswoman Alice Tripp noted Davis' previous calls for more restrictions on gun show sales and past votes against allowing concealed license holders to carry their guns in classrooms and buildings on college campuses.

"Wendy Davis has a very bad record as far as gun owners go," Tripp said, calling Davis an "opportunist."

"If the issue isn't important to you, then it would be smart to take it off the table by saying, 'Me, too; now let's go back to talking about education and how we fund road building and the stuff the mainstream of Texas is really concerned with,'" he said. . . .

Well, now Davis says that she really didn't believe her promise and just said it to get elected. She told the San Antonio newspaper:

.Lt. Joel Vettel said one of the four knew the victim and lured him behind a building in the 900 block of NP Avenue. There, the man was assaulted, knocked unconscious and robbed of his wallet, Vettel said.

Police were dispatched to the scene about 12:10 p.m. and learned that the passer-by, who has a license to carry a concealed weapon, brandished his gun to end the robbery, Vettel said.

All four of the alleged robbers were being held Monday evening at the Cass County Jail. . . .

A new Pew Research Center survey finds that, for the first time in their surveys, the majority of Americans oppose more gun control. Gallup and CNN polls tell a similar story. Opposition to gun control has been increasing over at least the last couple of decades.

Gun control groups have spent hundreds of millions of dollars to try to convince Americans that gun control is the answer. In 2013, gun owners’ groups — including the NRA — spent less than one seventh as much on television advertisements. This year looks to be even more lopsided, thanks to the unrelenting efforts of individuals such as Michael Bloomberg, George Soros and Gabriel Giffords.

Perceptions have changed dramatically, with most people now believing the “More Guns, Less Crime” hypothesis. Gallup recently asked Americans if they thought residents are safer with a gun in the home. People answered “Yes” by a margin of 63 to 30 percent. In 2000, Americans gave just the opposite answer by a margin of 51 to 35 percent. In 2013,Sixty percent of gun owners listed “Personal Safety/Protection” as the reason for owning a gun.

Academic research aligns with current public opinion. If you have a gun in the home, that gun is far more likely to prevent murder than it is to be used in an accidental shooting or to kill a loved one. . . .

12/29/2014

New "American State Legislators for Gun Violence Prevention" has 200 legislators out of 7383

A new group of state legislators, named the "American State Legislators for Gun Violence Prevention," has been formed to push for gun control. Reuters has a fairly positive news story on the group, but the article mentions a couple of points. One thing left out of the Reuters story is some perspective: that the 200 unnamed legislators amount to just 2.7% of the 7,383 state legislators.

-- they will not mention who their members are.
-- they have "not released information on its preliminary donors" [Any guesses? Bloomberg?]

The organization is billed as bipartisan, but at the news conference they had announcing the group's formation: "The only Republican lawmaker was state Representative Barbara Bollier from Kansas."